Bechtle numbers boosted by managed services

Bechtle's revenues rose 5.4% cent to €723.4m in Q2, as it picks up more managed services business. Earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) underwent a disproportionately high growth of 21.0% to €32.3m. Headcount has gone up to a total of 7,328 employees, a year-on-year increase of 390 persons or 5.6%.

"Taking into account the extremely strong prior-year quarter, we have reason to be highly satisfied with the group's performance in the second quarter, especially in view of the many strategic projects that Bechtle is currently pushing ahead. Though these projects will affect the company's future, they also involve a major input of resources", explains Dr. Thomas Olemotz, Chairman of the Executive Board of Bechtle AG.

The IT system house & managed services segment increased its revenue 6.7% to €481.6m. As in the prior quarters, the domestic system houses were the growth drivers, gaining 7.9%. In the second quarter of 2016, segment EBIT climbed 48.3% to €20.4m. At 4.2%, the EBIT margin was significantly higher than in the prior year (3.1%). This outstanding performance especially reflects the increased share of higher-quality services, such as managed services and cloud services. With an expanded offer for the transformation of existing IT architectures into modern cloud environments.

In the reporting period, the revenue in the IT e-commerce segment climbed 3.1% to €241.8m. While most of the trading companies performed very well, Bechtle was confronted with difficult industry conditions in some key e-commerce markets, it says.

Bechtle holds fast to its forecast that in 2016 as a whole, it will significantly outperform the prior year revenue and earnings figures, and confirms the forecast for 2016 that had been published in March. "The earnings performance in the first six months was excellent. Though these dynamics cannot automatically be extrapolated to the whole year, we are confident about the developments in the second half of 2016. Therefore, we confirm our expectations of high one-digit growth rates for the revenue and earnings. Especially the development in the third quarter will show whether we can even surpass these targets", says Dr. Thomas Olemotz.